Easter Holidays - Day 2

The next day, during breakfast, chatted with our host, Peter, for a bit and found that he was a jet turbine engineer turned B&B owner and mountain biking guide. We've never done any mountain biking (in the mountains) before but ended up hiring him for a guided tour of the mountains in the afternoon (£25/person). It was a nice compact group. There was Bo and I and Peter brought along a friend. His friend was an awesome mountain biker and a very fit bloke. Actually, they're both very fit and they're nearly 50 years old!

We rented bikes from a shop by the lake and Peter got a us a deal, £10/bike, since we need them for just a few hours and they only do daily rates. We took the ferry across the lake (got a free ferry ride since Peter knows the guy) to where the mountains were. In the beginning of the mile, it was flat or had a slight incline and I started off well. Then there was our first climb. It was so steep that even the experts had to get off and push. I started to cycle the first bit of it but my front wheel hit the only rock that was popped up from the rest and I fell over. My speed diminished quite bit before that point so it didn't hurt (much). It felt like a never ending up hill push and I was having a hard time with it. Luckily, Des, the other guide, helped me out and pushed my bike for me. Even then, I was having a tough time walking up the mountain. By the time we got to the top, I felt like puking. Bo reckons that I didn't warm up enough and Peter thinks I ate too much for lunch. I think i'm a tad bit out of shape. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I had to walk around for a few minutes to calm my heart rate enough to talk.

There were a quite a few more uphills but they weren't as bad as the first. I was still at the end of the pack and the guides took turns with my bike but I didn't puke. We cycled through a town where there were bits of road and that felt good. It gave my butt a break from the bumpy trail. Biking down the mountain was exciting and frightening because it was my first time going down a steep uneven trail with rocks sticking out. One tip that the guide kept saying was 'Pick your route', but it's easily said than done, especially when the route I pick suddenly became more rocky or when a puddle suddenly appeared in front of me. Well, it didn't suddenly appear, I just need to look further ahead. At the end, we covered 12 miles in a little more than 3 hrs and caught the ferry back at around 4:30pm. Then we returned the bikes, thanked our guides and started our drive to Keswick. Keswick is pronounced as Kesick by the locals. Apparently the 'w' is silent... then why put it there? Anyways, it's another town in the Lake District about 30 minutes from Windermere. We would have stayed in Windermere, but our B&B was fully booked.

Easter Holidays - Day 1

We took an extended Easter break and went for a 5 day road trip that started on Thursday, April 5th. We spent 2 days in the Lake District area and 3 days in Edinburgh, Scotland. We finally decided on this trip less than a week before our holiday started. We knew we wanted to go somewhere for the Easter break but we just couldn't decide where. At first, we were planning to travel with Riley and go to Portugal. But then we realize that we wouldn't get our work permit visa sorted out before then so we decided to keep the trip to within the UK. Then we were planning to go to Isle of Wright but that fell though when we decided to travel with another couple. We were planning to go down South and go to Cornwall while visiting the Stonehenge, Bath, and other villages along the way. However, they cancelled on the last minute so it was once again just Bo and myself. Since there were only a few days left until Easter holiday, we had a tough time trying to find accommodations. I've been told that majority of the English people book their holidays up to a year in advance. It took us hours and hours of searching and calling to find accommodation and finalize our plans. Many of the B&B's in the Lake District had their own websites but don't list availabilities, so we had to make quite a few calls.

Thursday April 5th. We had an early start and left Tring at around 10:30am. There were quite a few cars on the motor way but we were able to keep on the 70m/h for the most part. There were many 'Welcome Break' areas along the way and we stopped at one with KFC for lunch. The 'Welcome Breaks' are a great place to stop for toilet breaks, food and petrol. There's one every 20-25 miles and are very popular with the Brits. I've been told that they usually stop at every 2nd Welcome Break on a road trip and they consider a 3hr drive to be very far away.

We arrived at our B&B in Windermere at around 3pm and checked in. Then we headed for Bowness town, where the largest lake was in the Lake District. We saw a large amount of outdoor shops and many Chinese and Italian restaurants. Some British tourists think Chinese food was exotic and special. I guess that's how the restaurants can justify the high prices they charged. However, compared to London, the Lake District is quite affordable. We found food and shop prices are generally 20% less than London. I bought myself a nice V-Shaped pillow for only £6 and it wasn't even on sale. I saw the same one selling for £10 at a shop in Alyesbury (a town close Tring). In one of the many outdoor shops, I got myself a pair of warm fleece gloves for £4, the same ones would probably go for £8 in Alyesbury or London.

Then we drove to the Lakes and took a stroll in the area. The weather was very nice, the sun was out but it was quite windy. Parking was £1/hr but it was the annoying park and display type. I prefer the 'return with your ticket and pay' ones because you just don't know how long you're going to be there for. Though we should of just walked there from the B&B since it was only a 10-15 mins stroll. But we were feeling lazy. The lake looked crowed with lots of different boats floating around. The wind seem to have picked up some more so I bought myself a lovely 100% lambs wool scarf, made from Scotland. I wanted to wrap it around myself immediately but I didn't have anything to cut the tag off. We went on a 30 minutes cruise before heading off to find some dinner.

We made the mistake of going into Windermere for dinner because there were very little restaurants and pubs to choose from compared to Bowness. We ended up going into a restaurant that advertised 'fresh fish' on the board. The restaurant was about 50% full when we walked in. I don't think we were picky eaters but the food was not good. Bo had one sip of his french onion soup and refused to have anymore. I had a taste and it was very very very salty. I had fish and vegetables and everything was very dry (no sauce). They're lucky to be in a tourist area, otherwise I don't think they will survive with the quality of food they're serving.

Google's Free Broadband

Check out Google's free broadband service. The FAQ is a must read! http://www.google.com/tisp/

Heater needs fixing

Last weekend, I was walking around in a T-shirt. A day later it started to get cold. A day after that it got even colder, A day after that it started to snow. People started to wear their winter jackets in the office. A few weeks ago the heater in our office building stopped working. It is still cold today. The heater in the building is still not fixed. Luckily I've got a space heater under my space, but still, are they ever going to get someone to fix the heating?

Woburn Safari Park

We spent the entire Sunday afternoon in Woburn Safari Park. There were many unique animals to see. The facility has 2 parts, the safari park and the foot safari.

The safari park requires you to drive through it with your own car. Windows and sunroofs must be closed and no one is permitted to get out of their car. It would be wise to follow this instruction since we drove pass bears, wolves and lions roaming in the large open field (In their own separate areas). There were also a monkey area and occasionally, cars get stopped by the keeper when a monkey tries to hitch a ride out of the monkey compound. We also had a pair of zebras and a pair of elephants that crossed in front of us. We passed a lion that was about a metre away. The highlight was watching a female lion dribbling a ball around. She had good control of the ball and with more practice, could try out for the local lion soccer team!

The area accessible by foot has several short information talks throughout the day. There were a few interesting animals. We manage to catch the sea lion, the reptile, and the penguin talks. I got to stroke a large snake, it feels like soft warm rubber. We walked through the Australian Walkabout where there were many wallabies hopping around. They look like miniature kangaroos. I saw a baby wallaby hanging out in its mothers pouch, peeking it's little head out. Apparently baby wallabies live in its mothers pouch for up to 6 months!

Tell me about me

I saw this on Chirlene's blog, so I nicked it...

I'd like to know myself better, so please tell me about me...
http://kevan.org/johari?name=jasmineleejasmine

Cycling to another county

Last week, Bo cycled from home to work, while I drove in. Since we moved office, we're now working in another county, which is about 6 times further than our previous office. Bo did the 10 km trip in 32 minutes.

There's not much bike paths so he had to go on the roads. I thought it was a bit dangerous. Especially when I cycled for the first time from work to home that day. I wasn't planning on doing that but Bo proposed a bet, that I couldn't do the trip in less than 1 hr. Of course, I didn't think I was that much out of shape, so I couldn't refuse. What I didn't take into account was the long stretch of uphill that I had to climb. But I persevered and push on hard. At the end, even though I wasn't in tip top shape, I managed it in 42 mins! My legs were feeling a bit stiff afterwards, but I recovered fully the next day. Though my butt was still sore from riding on the bumpy road.

I've noticed that...

I've noticed that...

UK roads are very twisty and ridiculously narrow. I started to drive to work a few times and it feels like driving in a video game, except the whole avoid hitting 'things' part. So nerve racking!

I suck at parallel parking. It took me hundreds of turns and thousands of milliseconds to get into a parking spot. And that's with Bo helping, so that I don't hit any parked cars.

I turned into a zombie this week. We've been doing nothing but watching TV. Not that we weren't TV zombies before but this week was quite extreme. Other than going to work, eating, and sleeping, we managed to go through two seasons of 'House'. I must compliment the main character. He's got an awesome personality, who presents like an ignorant SOB. But I think he's a misinterpreted, intelligent, ignorant SOB, with a touch of Jack Bauer.

UK has a lot less stat holidays than Calgary and they're not spread out very well. There's a total of 8 holiday and this year there's 1 in Jan (New Years), 4 are in Apr/May, 1 in Aug and 2 are in Dec. So there's not much to look forward to in the months of Feb, Mar, June, July, Sept, Oct, Nov. We haven't taken any time off since last Christmas. However, work is quite busy and since Bo and I are the only 'resources' on the main project, any time off adds additional days to the project release.

I have a problem, and the first step is to admit that I have a problem. Now I just need to find out what the problem actually is. So my problem, is not knowing what the problem is or do I have a problem that is hiding from my conscious mind? Then do I still have a problem?

Happy Chinese New Year

This year's Chinese New Years falls on Sunday, Feb 18. To celebrate the new year of the pig, Bo and I went to London where they're hosting the China in London 2007 event. Trafragal Square had 7 hrs of performances from Chinese opera to lion dancing. We were lucky to have caught the lion dance. They invited two brothers from the Canton province to perform the lion dance on the traditional bench setup, and they were excellent. They also hold the Guinness book of records for the longest lion dance jump.

The London Chinatown was about the size of the one in Calgary. However, it was really difficult to go anywhere. The number of people there were incredible. The police initially didn't control the direction of the crowd, so people were walking in every direction and this caused a huge deadlock. People were unable to get anywhere, there were lots of pushing and shoving. It took us about 30 minutes to get from one end of the block to the other (which normally takes 2 minutes) Every restaurant had a lineup. They blocked off several roads that run in and around Chinatown and turned it into pedestrian walkways, but the roads were still congested with people.

Leicester square was set up for the fire cracker display again this year. There were two shows but unlike last year, we only caught the second one. From last year's experience, we thought the show would last 20 mins. However, this year, it was around 5 mins long. It was still a nice display.

In the evening, we caught a show in the Royal Opera House in Covert Garden. The first group performed music with traditional Chinese instruments. The second was a Chinese rock and roll band called 'Big Yellow'. Though the drummer is Caucasian. The last group was called 'Frank Chickens'. They're mostly Japanese performers except for one big Ireland dude. This group was weird and funny. They were singing and dancing and keep changing into weird costumes.

Video Games

... they're just evil. This past week, Bo and I have been taking turns, spending hours, on a PC game. Today, I spent all day playing it! A perfectly good Sunday, wasted away just like that! I mean, I could have spent the time watching TV. ;) Anyone else addicted to this bad habbit?

Interesting observation:
The Brits call cigarettes/smokes 'fags', so am I correct to say, Calgary is fag free since 2007, and in 2008 all the Calgary casinos are going to be fag free too?

Severe Weather Condition in the UK

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Today we woke up to a white Tring. Before we started our drive to work, we knew that it would take a bit longer. We've also been relocated to another office in a different town. We started in the Wendover Office last week and it now takes us 15 mins to drive there in our tiny Hyundai. However, we did not expect our trip time to increase by almost 90% because of the weather. Luckily, we left a bit early, around 8am, and there were less vehicles than usual on the road, otherwise, the trip would have been even longer.

We were passing cars left, right and centre. (Mostly by passing on the lane used by the opposite traffic) High end vehicles like BMW's were skidding and some stopped in the middle of the road. Cars were unable to drive uphill (tiny slope) We had to follow a car driving at 15-30 km/h on a single flat one way lane. Unable to pass, we took deep breathes and meditated, until we finally turned off. When we eventually made it to the office, the parking lot was near empty. We did a few fun handbrake turns before finally pulling up to park.

There was a total of 5 people that made it into the office before us. One of the ladies told us that many people wouldn't be making it into the office. She was the only person out of 20 that made it in. So she's running around answering everyone's phones. My colleague made it in a few minutes before us and he left home at 6:30am. It took him 2 hrs to get to work (normally takes only 1hr) and he was behind a high end BMW travelling (skidding) at 15km/hr. Today I say, the cheap cars did better than the expensive 'rice boy' rides.

Later, I found out that schools were closed, some runways are closed and flights were cancelled. Traffic was so bad that they are advising people to stay off the roads unless travel was essential! Tring (the town that we're living in) had one of the highest snow falls at 15 cm. People in Calgary, I can hear you say "What, 15cm of snow? What's the big deal?" Well, snow, is rarely seen in the UK and drivers have a vague idea of how to deal with it.

Holidays

Its been a while since my last log and a few things has happen. We took 2 weeks off and went home for Christmas. I had an awesome time. Mom made alot of very tasty food! ;) I missed the huge open space in Canada. It's a nice break from living in a little hole (our room in the UK) for a year.

S and A (Sandi and Andre) was kind enough to organize a festive gathering, so we managed to catch up with quite a few people in one go. One of the party goers brought the Wii, so I took this opportunity to test it. This console gets an A+ from me. I played quite a few tennis games with 'A' and I'm still undefeated. I think we were the last ones to leave at the wee hours. Thanks for hosting S & A.

Those 2 weeks went by so quickly. It doesn't help that I got sick, only a week later. So annoying, this happen last year too. But it was far worst last year cause I had a flu as well as a cold. I convinced myself that going snowboarding would help my cold go away faster so we booked a trip out to Banff over the weekend. We went to Lake Louise on Saturday afternoon with Bo's parents and had dinner with em in Banff. The next day, We were planning to meet up with Ambrose and gang at the Lake Louise ski resort. However, I had troubles getting up on time. My body was still recovering from the cold virus. Eventually, we made it there, but had a hard time trying to location our gang. I decided to get the afternoon pass since I didn't think I would last the whole day of intense snowboarding in my condition. We managed to meet up with our gang when they came in for lunch. The snow conditions were quite nice, it snowed the entire time. There were lots of powder, so it was quite tiring for my whole body. It has been nearly 2 years since I last boarded so my first run was quite scary... actually, most of the runs were a bit scary. This was my 2nd or 3rd time on this mountain so it's new territory for me. I managed to board till almost closing time but I was quite tired so I decided to call it quits before I pass out from exhaustion. This time round, I fell many times but luckily, I didn't hurt myself (too bad)

Time flew by so quickly when you're having fun. Once again, I felt quite depressed when the time came for us to board the plane. You'd think that I'm used to saying farewells but nope, going to the airport gets me teary all the time. It's the time spent on waiting to check in and getting through security that take forever, so it gets me thinking about what I'm leaving behind. Luckily, this emotional phase always lessens after the plane takes off to my destination.

Bo went back to work the next day after we arrived, meanwhile, I haven't even gotten over my jetleg and my cold. This time around, I was being more conscious of my health and made sure I had enough rest so this cold wouldn't turn into anything nasty like last year. By the time Saturday rolled around, I was nearly at 100%. We went to a piano recital by Alexander Ardakov with our British friends at a near by church in Tring. Seats were first come first serve and are always sold out, so we all went early. Score, We sat literally three steps (my little steps) away from the pianist. We were close enough to see his fingers in action and even hear him hum to the tune. I don't know much about music, but he sounds incredible. This guy played in Bosendorfer in Vienna, St John's Smith Square in London and the Carnegie Hall in New York. I think he plays in this church about once a year, where he does the practice run before going to one of the big venues.